Bert Stern had the most in-demand iconic beauties of the 1950s and ’60s in front of his camera, including Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren. Possibly most memorably, he captured Marilyn Monroe six weeks before she died for a series later known as “The Last Sitting.”

Whenever photographer Paul McDonough had enough time and money to get out of the city in the ’70s and ’80s, the New Yorker would pack his camera bag and drive. He’d have Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road” in his back pocket and wander until his money ran out, he said.

At the heart of LaToya Ruby Frazier’s work is a deep interest in the complex relationship between mother and daughter, she says. Set in Braddock, Pennsylvania, the former steel mill town where Frazier was born and raised, her photographs portray a struggling city and its effect on those who live in its shadow.

Gary Knight went to Iraq ahead of the conflict in 2003 to document the brewing war. He kept diaries of the events, which will be published alongside his photographs in an exhibition at the Bronx Documentary Center in New York, starting Thursday, March 14, in conjunction with the 10-year anniversary of the war’s start.

“Dread and wonder” is how photographer Bryant Austin described the feeling of a solid, mighty tap on his shoulder from a humpback whale. He sometimes floats in the ocean for hours waiting for the giant creatures to come to him. It took six years to complete his latest book, “Beautiful Whale."

While living for five years in Istanbul, photographer George Georgiou says he witnessed Turkey struggle to find its identity amid a rapidly changing cultural and physical landscape. “The speed of modernization really is breathtaking,” he said. “It was fascinating to watch.”

“What happens to lovers while they are sleeping?” photographer Paul Schneggenburger asked as he began his project “The sleep of the beloved.” Using the second room of his two-bedroom Vienna apartment as a studio, he exposed the film of his 4×5 camera for six hours.

Even in the seemingly most mundane of the visual world, Ray Metzker could create stark, abstract images and present a rich new view. With a career spanning half a century, it’s difficult to say that there is one theme to his work, but he has been consistent about capturing reality and the formal qualities that make it art.